The V.I. cancer registry, envisioned since at least 2000, is now up and running, according to the Department of Health.
Acting Health Commissioner Michelle Davis said in a statement the USVI Central Cancer Registry is “an epidemiologic surveillance system designed to collect the information regarding incidence, distribution, risk factors and mortality of cancer,” which “is essential to the public, health professionals, researchers, the medical community and policy makers to understand and address the cancer burden in the territory.”
Davis said the registry has been implemented and will be maintained under the Department of Health – Chronic Disease Prevention Program.
The registry currently collects information from several sources: hospitals in St. Thomas and St. Croix, pathology laboratories, hospice care centers, ambulatory surgery centers, free-standing chemotherapy clinics and physicians. The VICCR also has agreements with other state central cancer registries to obtain information on USVI residents who are diagnosed with or receive treatment for cancer in these states.
The V.I. Health Department signed a contract with Reflectx Oncology Resources to create a long-anticipated territorial cancer registry in 2014.
In 2012, the U.S. Interior Department awarded the V.I. Health Department $418,000 to develop a central cancer registry through a technical assistance program grant. This grant enabled the Health Department to hire Reflectx Oncology Resources, according to the department.
